It's a typical afternoon at Langdong live poultry market in Nanning, capital of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southern China. A man walks into a stall and points to the fattest chicken in the cage. The seller yanks it out and weighs it amid wild flapping. Feathers fly. After some bargaining, they agree on the price. The live chicken is tied by the legs and swung home, upside down, to meet its end in a boiling pot.
Chicken is a staple meat in this province. "A banquet without chicken is not a banquet," goes the local saying. New mothers, especially, are reported to need a diet of 100 chickens before they can recover from childbirth.
Nanning is also the first city in mainland China to report avian influenza among poultry in February 2004. The virus claimed one human life here in 2008.
This is one of the reasons the World Health Organization decided to start a project in Nanning to promote Healthy Marketplaces in the fight against avian influenza. The US$ 400,000 project funded by USAID project seeks to control and prevent the spread of avian influenza in 3 provinces (Guangxi, Zhejiang and Liaoning) by educating market managers, stall owners and consumers about the virus, practical ways to minimise risks, and what to do if the virus is detected in the market – among poultry or humans.
"One way to reduce the transmission of disease is to reduce the contact between customers and live chicken," said WHO's food safety expert, Dr Peter Ben Embarek, during a recent risk assessment visit to Langdong market. "There should be some physical separation between the two, especially when there are children who may touch the cage then touch their face. If customers get too close, they can inhale dust from the feathers or faeces. Dirt and blood on the ground can also spread as more people walk around."
He noted that slaughtering is the most high-risk activity as that is when someone is exposed to the chicken's blood or other secretions. "If slaughter areas are too small or crowded, it becomes hard to work in sanitary conditions. Besides creating more space, stall owners should also use bigger closed buckets to drain the blood properly. Better water supply and washing facilities would also help," he said.
Other challenges include the safe disposal of waste (such as feathers, innards and water used in slaughtering chickens), maintaining proper market zoning so that meats and vegetables are separated from each other, ensuring daily veterinary checks on the poultry, and regular cleaning of the entire market.
While small changes to the physical set-up of the market could have a big impact on reducing risks, the main aim of the Healthy Marketplace project is to raise awareness and change people's attitudes and behaviour in the market. This means practising good hygiene habits such as regular handwashing, keeping cooked food away from live animals, and separating different species of animals (instead of putting geese and chickens in the same cage, or quails and rabbits in cages side-by-side).
"We are holding courses for market managers and sellers to inform them about bird flu," said Mr Deng Qijun, Deputy Director of the Nanning Patriotic Public Health Campaign Committee, about activities planned under the project. "We'll put up notice boards in the market and give information handouts to customers. They should know how to identify and prevent the disease."
Avian influenza, however, is not just a health issue. Combating it will take the combined efforts of different sectors dealing with the poultry industry. Thus the project brings together Nanning health authorities and their counterparts working in agriculture, animal husbandry, environment protection, drug safety, industry and commerce, among other government departments. They meet regularly to coordinate their work and responses.
"This project is an important investment for Nanning and will set an example for other minority areas, other Chinese cities, and even ASEAN countries," said Mr Deng, alluding to Guangxi's rich mix of ethnic minorities and the fact that Nanning hosts regular meetings between China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
In addition to Nanning, WHO is also supporting Healthy Marketplace projects in Hangzhou (Zhejiang province) and Dalian (Liaoning province). The three cities were selected as pilot projects by the National Patriotic Health Campaign Committee.